Achievements

Running some of the Horde Garrison quests in Shadowmoon Valley on the weekend and I came across a rare spawn.

Right away the name sounded familiar, but to be honest I was drawing a blank as to why. I didn’t really care because a rare is a rare. A Human Mage and Nelf Druid had come strolling up and I figured the three of us could probably take it down. That didn’t happen. I have no idea where they went, or they died. I quickly realized I couldn’t take it down on my own and sent out a message. Repgrind was in immediately, and Arv was close behind. Unfortunately, we learned Arvash didn’t have the flight path to Shadowmoon Valley yet, being a fresh 100. It was also around this time where I remembered what made Demidos special: the Servant of Demidos.

Rep and I decided to tackle him anyway and we got him down to about 10% before we died. We learned his health pool climbs based on the number of people in the fight. As we were rezzing, a Gnome got into the fight. We fought hard and got him down.

A nice little achievement there. Now the key to the fight is easily your health. Demidos has an ability that knocks your health down 25%. Not total health, mind you. Just current health. So heavy top-up heals are not really a great idea in this fight. If you can do some HoT’s then you’re in better shape. I know my health sat below 35% for most of the fight. But I just kept Rejuvenation active as much as I could. Rep was busy on her end and we managed to take him down a second time on her server. Unfortunately there was no loot the second time around. I was disappointed because Repgrind had gotten a necklace that was of no use. I wanted her to get the pet…same as I did!

Incredibly ecstatic to have the Servant drop. In briefly perusing the new Draenor pets, this was probably the one I wanted the most. I definitely couldn’t believe my luck when I saw it in the loot. I tried to carry that luck over and nab some raid pets. Once again Tempest Keep and Karazhan offered me nothing. But still, getting this guy made my weekend. And I couldn’t have gotten it without Repgrind’s help!

After a few delays and time away from Azeroth, Zarahi became the first of the Amateur Army to hit the new cap of 100. With much rejoicing I stopped to consider things thus far. As such, here’s 100 random thoughts about the new expansion: Continue Reading

It’s not very often some little item pops up that I think I have to have in the game. A pet or a mount perhaps. But they’re far and few between. But a toy? No, I just take those as I stumble upon them. That was the case until yesterday when Tome talked about the new Darkmoon Faire daily. I was instantly in love.

So off I went. At first I couldn’t even find the bloody goblin…because I didn’t realize it was a daily. Smooth on my part. A short time later I had success. Liouxpold got the Ringmaster achievement and so I stopped, brainfarting on what needed to be done to get the toy. 50, not 25. So then I tried Tum. Completely the daily, not even close to the achievement and didn’t feel like buying tokens with him. Instead, I hopped over to Hartley, who the game apparently loves.

She picked up Lil’Bling, the Magic Broom, and the Pumpkin Bag in the span of a week. In-game time it was probably an hour. I don’t know what it is, but I have decent luck with her and the RNG. So I figured if anyone was going to do it, it should be her. The first run I came out of the gate flying, no pun intended. I made it to 42. And then I got 3. I had a few runs where I thought I caught the ring and it sure looked like I did…but the buff still wore off so I was out of luck. I got fed up and even posted on Tome’s page that I didn’t have the patience to try and knock this off in the few remaining hours of the faire. But I’m also a Taurus and decided that since I had bought the bag of coins, I would try my best. So I devised an alternate route this time. On the first crack, I got to 30-something and ended up at a dead end, but I realized it was because I grabbed an important ring at a time where I didn’t really need to. Sure, enough, the next run was successful.

I have to admit, a Skeleton with blazing wings and a flaming skull for a shield looks pretty slick. Oddly enough, this spot isn’t far from where you start and for what it is worth my initial strategy was to go right in front of me (which would be to the left in this shot), swing out along the water and curl in the south end. What ended up working for me was going the other way, towards the tent you see there, hitting the rings around the fortune teller and turtle toss area before going into the woods, then shooting across the main entrance and out along the water.

Once you get a feel for the layout of the rings, I don’t think it’s a difficult achievement. It’s just making sure you don’t accidentally miss a ring in the one instance where you have very little time between them. I found what made the effort most frustrating was when you landed on the ground as far as possible from the quest giver. But isn’t that always how it goes?

After a movie with Mrs. Amateur, I hopped online to get the Day of the Dead companion. After doing so, I was more or less puttering around when I decided to see if I was close to completing any achievements. After a short search, I realized I needed just 6 pets for the Eastern Kingdoms Safari. Lava Beetle was easy enough, as I was surprised I didn’t already have it. With the Wharf Rat being available in Tol Barad that was also a piece of cake.

The Irradiated Cockroach became frustrating. I found more Fluxfire Feline than I could shake a stick at, and after battling or killing several I came upon a roach in the Toxic Airfield. And then there were three. Two in the Twilight Highlands conveniently enough. Unfortunately, I didn’t think things through and took Tumunzahar to do this. That meant neither would be a quick in and out for the notoriously awful trapper. Still, I persevered with success. I cared not that either was of poor quality (though I did later upgrade the Fiendling).

Wouldn’t be right if he took less than three tries at it.

Four tries apparently keeps it “sporting.”

All that was left was a Snowshoe Hare from Alterac Valley. Honestly, if you go hunting for this then save yourself the time and go read Wipebringer’s post on wowhead. I followed it and it ended up being spot on. I was even lucky enough to have the one I found be a rare. All in all I would say it took me an hour and a half to finish off the list, but finish it I did.

I suspect that when the time comes, both Pandaria Safari and Kalimdor Safari will prove more difficulty. Then again, so long as “Minfernal” is on the list, Kalimdor won’t even be attempted.

A few days in and we’ve definitely got a feel for the new flavor of WoW. Yesterday I talked about the many immediate changes that bombarded us in the first minutes we logged in, but now the details can be absorbed a bit better.

Class changes are interesting. The only thing I had to do on Saintvache was choose two new talents. His action bars went nearly untouched. I could not say the same for Tumunzahar, Siori, and Liouxpold. Perhaps it’s an Alliance thing. Speaking of classes, many people found Burnt Glyphs in their possession now. Rest assured that’s just for Glyphs that are no longer in the game.

I completed the Iron Horde invasion on the Horde side, and while I don’t know the details of what is to follow, I really hope it isn’t done now. I came out of it with a title and a new pet, but incredibly underwhelmed. That and agitated because Thrally-Sue (which I think I’ll call him far more often now) had to be the one running around on the front line. Really? There couldn’t be anyone else? The guy had a whole expansion dedicated to him (Deathwing was merely supporting cast) and still we get him shoved down our throat. Not to rant too much, because up until the later parts of Cataclysm I actually liked Thrall. It’s just that Blizzard has overplayed him. Getting back to the Iron Horde, it seemed pretty linear and to the point. I’ll have to flip over and give the Alliance side a try before I really assess it but I can’t imagine it is all that different.

One no longer has to spend so much time in Pandaria. I logged into a toon and found it sitting at 100% XP, but hadn’t dinged yet. There’s no way in Dire Maul I would ever let that happen. The OCD in me would have to ding before I logged. Particularly because that’s less than exploratory XP. That’s more along the lines of “you dinged because the wind changed direction.” Now, to confirm this is the case, I played for a little while and had six bubbles in half an hour. At 88. Hrm, this place really might not be that bad anymore.

The final nugget of “huzzah” is stacking. Imagine my surprise when I had the bank open and decided to top up my stack of Dreamfoil and sell the rest. Suddenly I had a stack of 28! I began playing around with this immediately, finding eventually that stacks cap at 200 now. Between that and the Toy Box my bags are bordering on empty (and the bag sort feature is fantastic). But what it really excites me for is my guild banks. For Claws, it just means having a cleaner bank. For the auctioneer in me, it means more room to store goodies. I mean, just look at the difference in one tab.

It wasn’t 100% good news, though. On top of shelling out gold for some face lifts (I think I spent about 200g or so in total. Obviously someone with more 90’s than I spent even more), I found that some gear held onto its transmogrification, while others reset. Needless to say, many of my toons look incredibly goofy so I will have to correct that when given the chance to.

I’m sure many people knew about these changes already, from playing the PTR or reading about it. For me, I have been incredibly removed from these details of the game as I’ve been merely puttering in it for the past few months. I vaguely kept tabs on what’s going on and really didn’t read the changes ahead of time (of course I knew about character models). Thus, it’s all a surprise. It feels like a good surprise, and I have a feeling I’m not the only returning player to think so.

There are benefits to a doctor telling you to be a couch potato for 2-3 days following surgery. I had decided I’d try to make Liouxpold my third 90, and figured I could get there this weekend. However, I went from 88 to 89 in just a few hours yesterday and thus the push was on. Clearly I made it, or you wouldn’t be reading this. During the last level I managed to pick up three Flawless Pet Stones (Aquatic, Beast, Dragonkin) without even noticing. From a rare I also acquired my first Blood Soaked Invitation. I’m looking forward to trying that out, as I was smart enough not to begin that one right before bed time. It’s one of those things I had long considered buying, but I just wasn’t keen on heading into “Fight Club” with a Holy Priest and just had not gotten around to it with Saintvache. I think because I have less gold on his server.

So between the trip to the Tram and a destination upon the Isle of Thunder, Lioux will be blazing some new Amateur territory for certain. However, I really need to clean up his look. A transmogging we must go…after maintenance ends. *sigh*

After running some scenarios last night, we were all at a loss as to what we felt like doing next. I noticed I was closing in on 8k in achievement points (still no idea how) so I figured I would head off and do the Amphitheater of Anguish. Some other people must have had the same idea because the place was packed. So that plan quickly went away.

As I was out in Zul’Drak, I decided to fly up to the Storm Peaks and see if I could possibly track down an Arctic Fox Kit. It’s bad enough they can only be found when it’s snowing, but it also was the only pet I needed for Northrend Safari and it’s been that way for well over a year. I flew out over Thunderfall, which used to be notorious for having them until you actually phased into the zone. This time there wasn’t even that tease. There was nothing. I flew up towards the Terrace of the Makers while explaining to guildmates what the kit was and how to catch it. Then I landed in the snow and had a few pets show up on the screen. When I saw one in particular, I couldn’t click fast enough.

That’s right, the Arctic Fox Kit. I didn’t care if it was Poor. It could’ve been laying there dead and I still would’ve gone for it. Of course my biggest fear was accidentally killing it, but that didn’t happen and in rare Tum form it only took three tries to capture him. The remainder of the fight was a cake walk as one pet did the trick. So I managed to knock off an achievement that had been bugging me simply because I had one thing left to do and for the life of me just couldn’t get lucky enough to even find the critter, let alone catch one. But catch it I did.